Trials can either cause you to sink into them or to rise above them by keeping your eyes fixed only on Jesus Christ. Trials always prove if a person's faith is truly genuine or not.

If a Christ-follower is constantly abandoning his or her faith for the world, that person's faith is not genuine. Trials prove the true character of that person's heart and God allowed satan to bring the trials into that person's life to test if that person truly has a heart that desires Christ above all things or not.

A Christ-follower with genuine, unsinkable faith is someone who does not entertain the things of the world, no matter what, because that person's love for the Lord is greater than the world, satan, trials and everything that person is facing.

Therefore, that person keeps their eyes fixed only on Jesus Christ. If a Christ-follower is filling up on the world, rather than on God, obviously that person is going to want more of God because that person hungers for what he or she lacks.

Satan brings trials into a person's life to distract that person from God and the will of God because satan wants to stop God and all that God is doing. If satan can cause a person to take their eyes off of God, in order to stop God and His will from coming to pass, then that person is allowing satan to win instead of God.

Satan will throw anything he can, at a Christ-follower, because satan wants a Christ-follower's soul just as badly as God does. If satan can get your soul he knows that then you will not be a threat to him and his plan any longer.

When you encounter trials, in this life, keep your eyes on Jesus because your love for the Lord should be so much greater than everything that you face. This is what proves if a person's faith is truly genuine or not walking through trials. God never promised life would be easy but He did promise that He would be with you every single step of the way.

The indescribable God is so good, and He uses what satan meant for harm for our good, His good and His glory. God allows satan to bring trials, into a person's life, so that God can use what satan meant for harm to refine a person into Christlikeness so that person's heart will look more like the heart of God.

If a Christ-follower is not constantly growing, in Christ, then that person's relationship with Jesus Christ is going no where and is fading. So many Christ-followers abandon their faith because they fear the trials that they must walk through in order to change into Christlikeness and mature in their faith.

Don't be afraid of trials! God has your best interest at heart, and He wants to take you from being a new Christ-follower to becoming a mature Christ-follower. It is in the name Christ-follower. A genuine Christ-follower is someone who follows Christ alone.

A person cannot follow Jesus Christ and the world at the same time. There are no part time Christ-followers. You either follow Jesus Christ or you don't. If you are genuinely following Christ Jesus, you will not be going where the world is going. If you are following the world, you will not be going where Jesus Christ is going.

Christ-followers, do not give satan and the world power over your life. Sure sin looks fun and can seem so wonderful but the truth is that it is deceptive because the end result is not fun. Satan has a way of dressing sin up to make it look so beautiful but beneath the beautiful is ugly. Don't be deceived! Keep your eyes on Jesus. Follow Christ!

Fall in love with Jesus and your faith will continue to prove genuine and unsinkable, despite the trials you encounter, before God and the watching world. A genuine Christ-follower's faith will prove unsinkable, walking through trials, because that person's love for the Lord is greater than trials, the world and satan. This is just the truth.

If you are someone who has been experiencing these kinds of things, be encouraged by these words that God has put in my heart to share with you. Let them change your heart, motivate you to draw closer to Christ, come to know the Lord like He knows you, and abandon the world in steadfast pursuit of your Savior.

Every experience does not define you but it does refine you. Ask yourself this question, "What can I do differently so that my faith, in Jesus Christ, proves to be genuine and unsinkable despite the trials I am currently facing?" The answer is just keep your eyes on Jesus!

Some days we can barely hear it. Other days it drives us to our knees. But it’s always there; that persistent tug in our souls. Whether we trudge through our days or chase the stars of fame and fortune, we can’t drown out the cry that sounds silently in the pit of our being, jarring us with its urgency and moving us with its tears.

#JordanForJesus: Grace

No matter what you may be going through in life, I want you to know that God's grace is sufficient for you. You may have messed up, you may have failed, you may have gone the wrong direction, you may have gossiped, or much worse, but God wants you to know that it does not define who you are. He does. He and His grace is much more powerful than anything you might have said or done. Grace always shocks. It always amazes, and it always stuns. Grace is what we all need. It's what everyone groping around lost in the darkness needs to know.

Slightly Obsessed #191: You Can Give Others the Gift of Courage

My father lay propped up in the hospital bed, his face ashen against the white sheets. My step-mother and I huddled around him in the cramped space of the progressive care unit in which he was recuperating. He had suffered three heart attacks in the space of one month. None of us had gotten much sleep in the last few days. So far, we had seen little of either the hospitalist in charge of his care or the cardiologist on staff.

Slightly Obsessed #190: A Warbird’s Lesson

On a recent hot July day, we took in an air show in our town. Vintage planes, including a couple of impressive old warbirds, sat majestically on the tarmac for inspection as we darted from wing to wing to find relief from the withering heat.
These planes are still operable, so although some of them were open for people to walk through, the cockpits were off-limits for obvious reasons. No one wanted a tragedy to happen because an unauthorized person tampered with the controls. People who don’t know what they’re doing shouldn’t be in control.

Slightly Obsessed #189: The Calling

The sound must have been a maddening echo that haunted him at first, tormented by the rooster’s crow that mocked his empty proclamation of loyalty. For three days, his faith lay in the grave with the Savior’s body, darkened by the memory of his public desertion.

Slightly Obsessed #188: Freedom

He was shouting “Freedom” as he plowed his car at twenty-one miles an hour into the granite monument engraved with the Ten Commandments.
A video posted on the suspect’s Facebook page depicted the man in his car facing the monument as a women’s voice, presumably on a car radio, asked, “Where do you go when you’re faced with adversity and trials and challenges?”

Nashville, TN – Today, PLUMB launched the next chapter of her career, releasing her new single “God Help Me.” The song, produced by Jeremy Redmon (Big Daddy Weave), has already found a place on radio, being added out of..